Akula (K-284)

History

The modern Russian Navy's Akula-class nuclear-powered attack submarines are currently (2017) 10 submarines in a Cold War-era program that called for a force of 20. This class is used by both the Russian (former Soviet Union) and Indian navies. The group was in operation from 1983 to 1994 and was operational from 1984 to 2009.

Five of them were discontinued after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The party has seen at least four different batches of modernization: Akula I, Improved Akula I, Akula II, and Akula III. The Russian Navy refers to the entire class as "Shchuka-B".

On 11 November 1983, the lead ship of the class, Akula K-284, was dropped from the Amur shipyard while the Cold War with the West was still ongoing. She was launched on June 27, 1984, and commissioned with the Pacific Fleet on December 30, 1984.

Acura displaces 8.40 tons at the surface and 12,770 tons underwater. She has a length of 362 feet, a beam of 45 feet, and a draft of 32 feet. Power comes from a single OK-650B pressurized water nuclear reactor, giving the vessel essentially unlimited operating range. Surface speeds up to 10 knots and, more importantly, 35 knots underwater.

The ship shop allows crew to stay at sea for up to 100 days (official). Crew number 73.

The shape of the boat corresponds to the Soviet submarine design of the time. The sails are well contoured on the hull back and are of a flat design. It sits amidships. The bow is rounded (to accommodate the sonar sensor below the torpedo chamber), and the stern tapers to form a sheath for the drive shaft. The propeller assemblies extend well behind the rear cross-shaped aircraft array.

The vertical stabilizer has a teardrop-shaped housing for towing the sonar array. Radar, radio and radar warning antennas are mounted on the conning tower.

Akula carries multiple active and passive systems for detecting and tracking potential threats. An off-the-shelf electronic warfare and decoy kit is also installed for self-protection. The armament is concentrated on 4 x 533mm and 4 x 650mm torpedo tubes, with a total of about 40 torpedoes loaded.

In addition, the submarine carries up to three shoulder-fired Igla-M surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems to counter low-flying threats and short- and medium-range threats.

Akula and her sisters, when introduced, surprised Western observers because of their cost and very advanced nature. The K-284 was retired from active duty in 2001 to support the Russian Navy's budget for the new decade, but some of these classes continued to be active in the Russian fleet (2017).

They are known to have been active in international waters since 2009.

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